WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers are asking the Supreme Court to extend the delay in his election interference trial, saying he is immune from prosecution on charges he plotted to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Attorneys John Lauro, Todd Blanche and John Sauer filed an emergency appeal with the high court on Monday, just four days after the justices heard Trump’s separate appeal to remain on the presidential ballot despite attempts to kick him off because of his efforts following his election loss in 2020.

The filing keeps on hold what would be a landmark criminal trial of a former president while the nation’s highest court decides what to do. It met a deadline to ask the justices to intervene that the federal appeals court in Washington set when it rejected Trump’s immunity claims and ruled the trial could proceed.

The Supreme Court’s decision on what to do, and how quickly it acts, could determine whether the Republican presidential primary frontrunner stands trial in the case before the November general election.

The Washington, DC, US Circuit Court of Appeals rendered “an extraordinarily fast” judgment on the election interference case, the Trump lawyers argued in their filing, sending the matter back to the district court unless the high court intervenes.

“If the prosecution of a President is upheld, such prosecutions will recur and become increasingly common, ushering in destructive cycles of recrimination,” the lawyers wrote.

“The President’s political opponents will seek to influence and control his or her decisions via effective extortion or blackmail with the threat, explicit or implicit, of indictment by a future, hostile Administration, for acts that do not warrant any such prosecution,” they said.

“This threat will hang like a millstone around every future President’s neck, distorting Presidential decisionmaking, undermining the President’s independence, and clouding the President’s ability ‘“to deal fearlessly and impartially with” the duties of his office.” … Without immunity from criminal prosecution, the Presidency as we know it will cease to exist.”

The Trump defense team has maintained that Trump’s actions to contest results between Election Day 2020 and when he left office in January 2021 fell within the “outer perimeter” of his official duties.

He is thus immune from prosecution under the doctrine of stare decisis, which holds that preceding court rulings should be upheld, since the defense team notes: “In 234 years of American history, no President was ever prosecuted for his official acts.”

The attorneys also argue Trump should be immune from prosecution under the principles of double jeopardy because the US Senate acquitted him for his actions that led to the attempted decertification of the electoral count and fomented the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

The federal appeals ruling by a three-judge panel denied both claims, saying the separation of powers doctrine “does not bar the federal criminal prosecution of a former President for every official act.”

“Trump’s alleged efforts to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election were, if proven, an unprecedented assault on the structure of our government,” the judges said. “He allegedly injected himself into a process in which the President has no role.”

“Presidential immunity against federal indictment would mean that, as to the President, the Congress could not legislate, the Executive could not prosecute and the Judiciary could not review,” they went on.

“Former President Trump’s reliance on the Double Jeopardy Clause is misplaced. Impeachment is not a criminal process and cannot result in criminal punishment.” 

The Supreme Court indicates keeping Donald Trump's name on the 2024 presidential ballot

• A majority of the Supreme Court’s nine justices signaled they will overturn a Colorado ruling that barred Donal Trump from the state’s Republican presidential ballot
• The Supreme Court listened to arguments on whether Donald Trump is disqualified from the 2024 presidential election due to his efforts after losing the 2020 election and his part in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.
• The Colorado Supreme Court previously ruled that Trump incited the Capitol riot and isn’t eligible to be president again, and as a result, should not be on the state’s primary ballot on March 5.
• A decision upholding the Colorado outcome would have the Supreme Court declare that Trump did engage in insurrection and is barred under the 14th Amendment from holding office again.
• Trump’s attorney Jonathan Mitchell argued that Congress is tasked with enforcing the disqualification clause, not the states that run elections.

DC US District Judge Tanya Chutkan had also rejected the president’s defense against prosecution based on immunity in December 2023, triggering the appeals process.

Chutkan initially set a trial date for March 4, 2024, which she later postponed.

Special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump on four counts last August for making “knowingly false” claims of widespread voter fraud in an effort to deny President Biden’s victory.

The immunity defense has also been invoked in Trump’s Georgia election interference case, where he was indicted on 13 counts along with 18 co-defendants for attempting to reverse election results in the swing state.